Jyuuken
by Sleyman
Summary: How different the events surrounding the invasion of Konoha could have been. Kimimaro x Hinata Updated for ease of reading.
1. To Change Oneself

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.**

**Author's (hopefully brief) Ramblings: SHO****KKU! I was inspired by 30 seconds of the dubbed version of Naruto as soon as I turned on my TV! THE DUBBED VERSION! Hows can this be? Anyway, welcome to my newest-sparkliest fanfiction. I'll be happy if it is even fractionally as well-received as Shikotsumyaku was. **

**Of note would be the current situation; this is set during the Hinata vs. Neji fight scene during the Chuunin Exam story arc. With a TWIST, of course.**

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_What's going on? How can she be faster than before?_

Neji was confused. Hinata had certainly had the upper-hand early on, but that was only because he had been focusing on hitting the Tenketsu in her arms. But this was different.

_Why?_

Hinata was now applying constant pressure, so much so that all he could do was block. And he was being forced back.

_Why?_

The wall was only a few feet away -or to put it another way, about two seconds at this rate- and that was bad. He was only just managing to dodge and block her rapid strikes, having a wall at his back could only be disadvantageous.

_Why is she so strong?_

He tried to angle his body away from the wall, only to find Hinata's blows cutting off his escape route.

_She was never this strong before!__ Is this the power of the Head Branch?_

And now he was against the wall. This was too unrealistic. This couldn't be happening. But "this" seemed to be happening, sure enough.

_NO! People can't change themselv-!_

His last thought stopped dead when he noticed the look in Hinata's eye. It was a focused, calculating look, the Byakugan searching out every opening in his stance to be exploited.  
A look very much unlike Hinata.

…_I…_

Realisation dawned on Neji briefly, and it was a beautiful enough dawn to transfix him for a fraction of a second. In that time of glorious insight, he barely noticed a hard hit, containing no chakra, land on his chest, knocking the wind out of him. He also didn't notice the way that this made him lean forward unconsciously, or the second hard blow which slammed his head against the wall. He fell forward quietly.

Hinata looked down at her unconscious cousin. Had she really done that? She was vaguely aware of some scattered cheering and gasps, but one voice cut through the rest. She looked up at Naruto, leaning over the rails of the observation platform, and managed a weak smile.

_Was I able to change…a little…?_

Then she dropped to her knees and saw no more.

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**Notes: ****Yes, it was a fantastically short chapter, wasn't it? Consider this chapter a prelude to the semi-finals of the Chuunin Exam. d:3 **


	2. Invasion

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.**

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'Are my troops in position yet?'

'Yes.'

'And the Suna shinobi?'

'They should move according to plan.'

'Haha. This is almost too easy.'

'However, there may be a small problem.

'Problem?'

'Kimimaro has fallen ill.'

'What did you say?' Orochimaru lifted Kabuto off the ground by his collar. Surprisingly, Kabuto stayed almost alarmingly calm.

'I said: Kimimaro has fallen ill, Orochimaru-sama.'

Orochimaru's glare bore into Kabuto for a second before he realized that Kabuto still had a carefully crafted expression of amiability on his face. It wasn't like he could threaten to kill Kabuto- well, not so that he would _stay_ dead, anyway. He released his grip, and Kabuto immediately straightened his clothes, completely unfazed.

'You really do have a sick personality, Kabuto. Can you cure him?'

'He seems to have contracted -or possibly, developed- a condition I am not familiar with.'

'And?'

'And…I've done all I can, but his condition is deteriorating.'

Orochimaru took this in calmly. This was certainly, as they say, a pain in the ass. Kimimaro had the most wonderful bloodline abilities he had ever seen, apart from maybe the Sharingan and Byakugan. He had intended to use Kimimaro as his next body, but it would be useless to take over a corpse. And the plans for the destruction of Konoha were so far along as it was… Hmm, maybe -even if he was useless as a container now- he could still be a useful pawn for bringing down Konoha.

'Alright, bring him here, and tell him I have a special assignment for him.'

'Are you sure that's such a good idea?' Kabuto said, out of line, with no respect, and in a voice dripping with patronization. He could be a petulant child sometimes.

'Kabuto.'

'Yes?'

'Don't speak to me like that.'

'Yes, Orochimaru-sama.'

* * *

It wasn't until the semi-finals that anything really interesting happened to Hinata. Before then, she had been sparring with Neji, who seemed to have something major on his mind recently, getting checked up on by medics, and training by herself. But, all the while, she had failed to think up a way of bringing herself to fight Naruto.

The judge (different from the one that had been judging the preliminaries, Hinata noticed) announced the start of the fight in a lazy tone of voice, which sounded up-beat compared to how Hinata was feeling. She hadn't been able to come up with any way to justify raising a hand to Naruto. How could she? He was the one who gave her the strength to face Neji in the first place. Let alone the…other stuff.

She had no resolve, no conviction, and no way to even stop herself from blushing every time she looked at him. Whenever she did manage a fleeting glance at him, he seemed equally ill-at-ease. Naruto was kind, she knew that. He probably didn't want to fight her either.

Genma rolled the needle from one side of his mouth to the other thoughtfully as the crowd got increasingly rowdy. 'Oi, you two. I did say "start," you know.'

Naruto cleared his throat. 'Um…hey, Hinata…' Hinata fought to stop herself from turning away or trying to hide. 'Uh… Should we, umm… Well…' he trailed off. He didn't have the heart or inclination to rush over and beat the quiet girl up, nor could he think of a way to tactfully suggest that they should try and beat each-other up. But Hinata understood.

'Umm…d-don't worry, Naruto-kun…'

'Huh?'

'I…can't beat you.'

'M-Mr. Referee? '

'Hm? What?'

'I-I g-give up.'

The audience didn't so much explode into angry yells as it did gracefully segue way from loud grumbling to jeers and impatient gas-bagging. It seemed to be the consensus view that if this boring fight was over, the next one should start immediately.

Naruto, on the other hand, seemed taken aback. He opened his mouth to protest, but remembered that he didn't really want to fight Hinata either. He shut his mouth, feeling slightly relieved despite himself.

Up in the private observation area where the most important spectators sat, the Third Hokage sighed- partly out of relief, but mostly out of disappointment. That fight could have been Naruto's chance to gain some recognition from the villagers, it was just unfortunate that he had an opponent that was difficult to fight.

The Fourth Kazekage gave the two exiting combatants a cursory glance, and promptly lost interest, finding the crowd more entertaining. He laughed quietly.

'The crowd is noisy.'

'It was an unsatisfying match.'

'Yes. That, too, but… the next match is something the head shinobi and feudal lords are highly anticipating.'

'By the way, I did not see him at the opening ceremony, but he is already here, correct?'

The Hokage hesitated for a moment. 'Y-yes…'

Back in the safety of the participant's observation box, Hinata watched the next few matches (two of which were delayed or settled by surrender immediately). She didn't even need to worry about what to say to Naruto, since he was enthusiastically cheering Shikamaru on from the beginning of his match. After that, things started moving fairly quickly. Sasuke appeared, his match with Gaara started, after a while there was a commotion where the Hokage had been, and everyone in the stadium was put to sleep with a high-level genjutsu.

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Kimimaro stopped running, fell to one knee, and started coughing violently. The Oto shinobi accompanying him ran back to where he had stopped and waited politely. Had they been accompanying someone who didn't have the ability to kill all of them in a few seconds, they might have given him some incentive to keep going by way of a sharp kick to the ribs, but they weren't suicidal. They also decided against trying to help him to his feet. It hadn't gone so well last time. In fact, they were one man short now.

With a final-sounding retch, a spray of blood spattered on the ground, and Kimimaro tried to catch his breath- now on hands and knees.

One of the braver shinobi cleared his throat. 'Kimimaro-sama, the invasion has sta-a-ah-!' The man's eyes widened in pain and surprise, and his hands twitched. Kimimaro looked up. The man's apparent discomfort was being caused by another shinobi, wearing a Konoha headband and flack jacket -so he must have been Chuunin-level or above- and he seemed to have stabbed the speaker in the back.

To Kimimaro's immediate left and right, the shinobi who had been escorting him folded up silently, quite detached from life. The enemy certainly had the advantage, from a tactical point-of-view, but the first one to attack Kimimaro was briefly -and fatally- sorry to have done so.

'…Yanagi no Mai…'

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Hinata picked her way through the forest aimlessly. The Invasion was over, and Konoha was still standing. Kurenai hadn't woken her up until the fighting had ended, and Team 7, and Suna shinobi, and a few others were still missing. Training seemed like a pointless activity at this point, and she didn't much want to face her father for a while, so she was taking a walk.

Even this far out from Konoha there were signs of battle. Navigational marks on the trees, or scorch marks from explosive tags, kunai and shuriken every so often, but -more than anything- footprints. On branches and the ground, they went towards and away from Konoha, north-east and south-east, west, north. Even though it seemed like various chases had taken place, it didn't seem like there had been too many lethal battles. She had come across a rather large pool of blood at one point, but it seemed like someone from Konoha had already mostly cleaned up.

It was slightly pathetic to be worried about other shinobi dying; that was a fact of life for them. But it brought back the words Neji had said to her before their preliminary match.

'_Hinata-sama…you are not suited to be a shinobi…your heart is too kind…'_

Snippets of the conversation flitted in and out of her mind before she could stop them. She tried not to think about that too much -it made her depressed- but it was hard not to recently. She had gained a little self-esteem after beating Neji, but what he said seemed to have been confirmed after her match with Naruto.

Suddenly, a dark shape appeared on a branch above her. Its vague edges coalesced into a slightly scruffy outline of a human wearing a mask. The mask turned to her, seemed to consider her for a moment, and then it was gone again. She saw another shape headed in the same direction, but further away, for a moment.

It was at about that time that she took a good look at the forest. It was much darker and older than the forest she was used to seeing. She must have wandered quite a distance from the village without realising it. She wasn't quite sure which way the village was, but it was a fair bet that those two people she had seen were moving directly away from it.

She took a step in the opposite direction of where the masked person had been going, and stopped. She had caught a glimpse of someone slumped against a tree not too far away. Well, "against" was the easiest way to say it. It looked like he had found a place where the huge tree naturally formed a small hollow with its roots. And it was virtually impossible to see from anywhere besides where she was standing, so the people in the trees couldn't have seen him. That being said, he had also made some effort to erase his footprints outside and leading up to the hollow. To Hinata, it looked as though he had just appeared there.

She did notice that he was bleeding, however. He had a few small cuts on his arms and legs, but there was also a spot on his chest where a lot of blood was coming out. There was also a little blood coming from his mouth.

All things considered, he probably wasn't from Konoha. This made deciding what to do a little…tricky.

'_You are not suited to being a shinobi…'_

Hinata's feet shifted hesitantly. Going back to the village and telling Kurenai about this seemed like a good option- but there was an awful lot of blood. But he might be an enemy- or he might be from Konoha and was hiding from the enemies. She didn't recognise him- but she had never met everyone in the village. Maybe he wasn't from Suna, Oto, or Konoha- maybe another allied village? He didn't have a forehead protector with a village's symbol on it- but there were plenty of reasons why he might have lost it.

As the thoughts buzzed, the only thing that remained certain was that this man was injured, of unknown origin, and he wasn't waking up. Her face tensed in low-level determination, and she fished around in her waist pouch for a small container of ointment.

The boy was definitely still alive, but he wasn't very healthy. He must have been in a deep sleep, since he didn't wake up at any point while she tried to apply ointment and bandages to the wound on his chest, which looked pretty painful.


	3. The Last Mission

**Author's Ramblings: Well, I've had writers block since I put the first two chapters up- not sure if I'm past it yet (wish me luck, plz), but I've hoarded this chapter long enough. Here you go.  
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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.**

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Kimimaro opened his eyes with a vague sensation that he was spinning. He had heard a noise, the type of noise that suggested footsteps. His heart sank slightly when he realised who it was likely to be.

Really, he was clinging to life in the hope that in his final hours, Orochimaru would find him. But that wasn't going to happen, he knew. The last mission he had been sent on was no less than "if you're going to die; do something useful as you're doing it." Orochimaru, having learned of Kimimaro's imminent demise, had ordered him to kill as many Konoha shinobi as possible. There was no expectation that Kimimaro would escape death, by disease at least. Effectively, Orochimaru had washed his hands of Kimimaro.

And the most damning thing of all, the girl that had found him was from Konoha. Her constant comings and goings were a fair indication that Konoha had not, in fact, been destroyed as per Orochimaru-sama's wishes. During the invasion, he had killed every shinobi that laid eyes on him, without fail, but that hadn't been enough to fulfil his master's desire.

He had failed totally, and completely. Even the anger that managed to bubble to the surface, at himself or Konoha, was almost unnoticeable to him. Such was the depth of his sorrow.

'U-umm…?' Oh yes, he had forgotten about her. Somehow, she had managed to find him, and had taken it upon herself to try and nurse as much life into him as was currently possible. She had treated his wounds, but he wasn't very interested in them so he wasn't sure if they were healing well or not.

'A…are you feeling better?' Kimimaro closed his eyes and tried to pinpoint the sudden blow of pain. He had a headache, but the girl spoke fairly quietly, so she didn't make it worse. He made a noise with his throat. Not really a sound, just a more audible version of breathing. It could have meant anything.

The girl hesitated for a moment, not sure if she should be concerned or not. Possibly catching his deadpan expression, she decided to ask something else.

'Umm, I brought some food… Would you, err, are you hungry?'

So far, Kimimaro had passively resisted all attempts on her part to move or otherwise try and make him comfortable. But he certainly was hungry. And dehydrated, most likely… But what did it matter, anyway? He was going to die. And Orochimaru-sama had no need of him anymore… Then again, there was no need to starve to death.

At time like these the stomach has amazing power over the brain, and can convince it of almost anything. Kimimaro made the smallest of nods, and some carefully made onigiri were duly produced.

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He worked his way through the onigiri slowly. Not in a way that suggested he expected poison, or that he was enjoying or loathing the taste- just like he wasn't sure his stomach would accept it for too long. Hinata, who had been almost holding her breath and nearly watching him carefully for any sign of enjoyment or disgust, only managed to catch fleeting glances of his face portraying concentration, thoughtfulness, or the expression he wore like clothes in the absence of any other expression.

When he had almost finished the second onigiri, he put down the last third of it, sat back, and began coughing. It started out as that quiet sort of throat-clearing type of cough, but continued on through a wide repertoire, including (but not limited to) phlegmy, the type that sounds like you think you'll throw up in a second and cover your mouth, the sort that has a funny sound after it suggesting that you're about to turn into a werewolf and finally, the type that comes with a free sample of blood. When the coughing had gone on for a good few minutes Hinata had started panicking, and by the end of it she was almost in tears. It wasn't too often she saw something so disturbing.

Once the boy had caught his breath, he leaned back against the tree, wiped the blood away from his mouth as though it concern him no more than sweat might, and returned to the onigiri. He knew he was dying. It couldn't have been more obvious to Hinata if he had actually spoken and told her, in no uncertain terms, that he was dying. Healthy people did not cough like that, and someone who thought he was fine didn't ignore a large amount of blood being coughed up.

Hinata sat back -having tried to jump to the boy's aid- and attempted to make herself un-tense. It didn't work quite so well as she could have hoped.

He needed serious help. There was a limit to how much she could do -the fact that they were deep in the forest didn't help- and she was rapidly approaching that limit. She needed to taken him back to the village so that a medic-nin could look at him. But, she couldn't do that if he really was from a hostile village. True, he didn't have a forehead protector, but she doubted that someone who wasn't a shinobi could have sustained the injuries she found him with, let alone be able to keep a straight face when there was obviously something terrible wrong with his lungs.

She was going to have to ask him.

'Umm…' The boy's eyes swivelled towards her. It was then that Hinata's social inhibitions kicked in. 'A…umm…' What was a good solid place to anchor a conversation about someone's identity? 'I…I haven't introduced myself yet…m-my name is Hyuuga Hinata!' she squeaked as quickly as she could while still being coherent.

The boy watched her for a few seconds, finally blinking. Then he carefully cleared his throat. For a moment, Hinata was afraid he was about to have another coughing fit, but he chose to speak instead.

'Kimimaro Kaguya' he said conclusively. Hinata noticed the way he said his first and family names around the other way. That was how people in some other countries said their names, wasn't it?

'Umm, what village are you f-from?' As soon as she said it, she wished she hadn't. At the question, Kimiamro had made a face like she had punched the wound on his chest. It was the most troubled, intense expression she had seen him make so far, not that that was saying much.

'I have no village…'

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It took quite some time for Hinata to convince Kimimaro that it would be a good idea to go to the Konoha hospital. A few days, in fact. He had stubbornly refused to go, but gave up eventually. Possibly because he thought it was the only way of shutting her up.

At the moment, they were en-route, and it was slow going. Moving around seemed to aggravate whatever was causing him to cough up blood. They were, maybe, half-way there, and this was the sixth time he had needed to stop and cough violently. Hinata couldn't bear to watch anymore. No matter how many times she saw it, she never got used to it.

Kimimaro wiped the blood from his mouth and stood up unsteadily. Hinata thought he probably should have stayed to catch his breath a little longer- but he wasn't coughing anymore, so he started walking again.

'Are you okay?'

'Yes.'

'D-do you want to sit down a little…'

'No.'

'Mm…'

Conversation taken care of, Kimimaro focussed once more on the ordeal before him; walking in a straight line and avoiding such unforgiving obstacles as trees and uneven ground. He didn't feel moved to speak for the rest of the trip- Hinata probably did from time to time, but decided to keep quiet. To his mild surprise, he only had one more coughing fit between there and the hospital.

Initially, the staff were slightly suspicious, but the name Hyuuga was enough to grant the "No Questions Asked" policy, and he was summarily checked-in.


	4. Hope and Doubt

**Author's Notes: ****This chapter's too short? BULLOCKS this chapter's too short! I know nobody said that, but I was thinking it! That said, on with the show.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.**

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The hospital was…well, it was a hospital. There are only so many ways you can describe a place where people get better, or don't.

Nurses and medics bustled around, doing the sort of things you might expect. There were a few children -some patients, some not- which Kimimaro occasionally (and unintentionally) reduced to tears by glaring at them.

One thing he took notice of was that some of the nurses gave him sympathetic looks from time to time, and the medics always seemed to hurry past, possibly in case he wanted to ask them anything along the lines of "When will my treatment begin?" Both these things suggested they couldn't do anything for him, but that wasn't terribly important. He knew he was going to die. If he had any questions for the medics, it would be "How long will I live?"

Hinata, on the other hand, remained infuriatingly optimistic. Apparently, she knew more about the medics' diagnosis that he did, but she also knew something else. And she was in the middle of conveying this valuable information to him in a comforting way.

'I'm sure that…Naruto-kun will…I've heard she's a wonderful medic. I'm sure Naruto-kun will be able to bring her here.' Whoever this Naruto person was, saying his name induced strange reactions in people's faces. Often irritation. But whenever Hinata said it a lot of blood collected in her cheeks.

'I'm sure he'll find Tsunade-sama' Hinata continued, slightly fixated on this idea. Kimimaro gave her a long, slow look and breathed into his facemask. It didn't do anything, as far as he could tell, but he had been given a facemask.

While she had stopped stuttering so much when she talked, he still wasn't quite sure why she came to see him every day. Come to that, he wasn't quite sure why she had even tried to save his life in the first place. She did things that mystified him, and vice-versa.

In any case, she was easier to deal with than Tayuya had ever been, who would probably kill him if given the power and a chance to do so, and swore like a sailor. In fact, she was easier to deal with than anybody from Oto no Kuni. He could easily say that she was easier to deal with simply because all he had to do was ignore her, but that wasn't quite true. Generally, he didn't tend to ignore her. In fact, he paid her quite a lot of attention…

Curious.

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Hinata's father was a strict man, with the eyes, mouth, and other facial features to justify that description all by themselves. Hinata wasn't sure how he had found out about her visiting Kimimaro, but she wasn't surprised that he had. He always seemed to find out about everything.

'How do you know that suspicious-looking guy? Was he a classmate of yours at the Academy?' Now that was a trap, right there. He'd probably found out that he was from outside the village as well, and he wanted to see if she was going to lie to him or not. He probably knew that she had admitted him as well.

Looking down a mile of ugly conversational road, Hinata cleared her dry throat meekly. 'N-no, father. I…o-only met him recently…' This was true.

'"Recently?" I don't recall you leaving the village "Recently."' And there was a clue, to let her know just how much he knew. She never mentioned that Kimimaro wasn't from Konoha. If he was dropping his false-pretences…oh dear.

'I-I only m-met him a few weeks ag-go.'

'And you're going to see him every day? He must have left quite an impression on you…' Fake-amazed question followed by meaningless speculative sentence…No! Hidden rhetorical question!

Hinata remained quiet and cast her eyes downward. The Hyuuga clan's mild disarray over her besting Neji in combat was still hanging around the main household, like an unwelcome guest. And like most unwelcome guests, it was hard to ask it to leave. And by the third day it was generally wearing your shirts and leaving its stuff in your bathroom.

'How much do you know about him?' Her father was no exception to the disarray. He was both stunned that she had beaten Neji, and infuriated that she had given up in the semi-finals. He wasn't at all sure about what to make of her surrendering to Uzumaki Naruto, and now there was another boy around her age she was constantly…no. No.

Hinata tried to bite her lip, while simultaneously trying to make it appear that she wasn't. Lying to her father had always been a bit…tricky. 'Umm…I know t-that he was…he was born in Mizu no Kuni.' Also true.

'Oh? And how did he come to be in the hospital?'

'He-he was caught up in the, um, Suna/Oto invasion. I think he c-came to…v-visit the hospital. He is ill.'

'So I hear.' Pointless statement: conversational dead-end.

Hyuuga Hizashi sighed a great sigh, laden with irritation at time wasted worrying that his daughter was getting involved with men of questionable character. She was a soft-hearted girl, and probably couldn't help becoming attached to an injured person as thought they were a bird with a broke wing. As long as she wasn't "…no. No."-ing, no problem existed as far as he was concerned. Even with her escapades to the hospital, she stuck to her daily training regiment and came home every night.

In the end, what more can a father ask for?

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Kimimaro was getting worse. It was a gradual, but seemingly unstoppable process. Like a glacier moving. He spent more and more time sleeping, and was losing interest in…everything, really.

For a while, Hinata had brought books and puzzles to try and keep him doing something. They hadn't exactly been well-received, but now he tried to not even look at them.

But, at the moment, he was sleeping. Waking him up didn't seem like the most humane thing to do, so Hinata had found herself reading. It was some kind of fantasy novel set in a world where shinobi were heretics, and were being hunted to extinction by the "Inquisition" or something like that. It was…interesting, but predictable. No wonder Kimimaro wasn't too keen on reading them.

She glanced up and confirmed that Kimimaro was still asleep. Looking at his face, it didn't seem like he was dreaming, but one of his hands was twitching slightly. It must have been doing it for a while, since it had somehow managed to make its way over the edge of the bed and was dangling awkwardly.

Before any thoughts of holding his hand crossed her mind, she had reached out, lifted the hand gently, and moved it halfway back to where it should have been. Then the thoughts of holding his hand crossed her mind. She hesitated, and a tint of red started growing in her cheeks. There was no real reason for her to be embarrassed, but there doesn't usually have to be one.

In those few seconds of hesitation, she noticed two things. The first thing was; he had large hands. That made sense, since he was a fair bit taller than she was, but it was still a little striking. The second thing was; they were cold. They were well below room temperature.

Hinata forced herself out of the slight daze she had somehow arrived at, and carefully lay the cold hand down. Even though she knew he was alive, the coldness she had felt was a little disturbing, and prompted her to look at his almost-peaceful sleeping face just to make sure.

To say that she was both surprised and embarrassed when she saw a pair of green eyes looking at her thoughtfully, would be largely true while still not quite capturing the scale of the emotions that hit her. Her entire face turned red, and she started trying to apologise (she wasn't quite sure what about) and not say anything at the same time.

Kimimaro, in turn, gave her a blank stare. Looked at his hand. Watched Hinata silently mouth apologies while sweating bullets. Looked at his hand. Watched Hinata rise unsteadily, still talking silently, and stumble backwards to the door while still mouthing apologies.

When she was gone, he gave his hand one more appraising look. While not being sure about what had just happened, he was now more certain than ever that Hinata was indeed a strange and baffling person.

Stranger still: where her hand had held his, the skin tingled slightly, and had a lingering warmth that seemed somehow out of place.

Her hand had been very warm. And comforting -in a way he couldn't remember feeling before- deep in the recesses of his mind.


	5. White Lies

**Author's Ramblings: SQUEE! (Probably the most manly "squee" I've ever heard, mainly because ****I've never heard another guy "squee," but that's a whole 'nuther story.) DeGlace publishing some more chapters of Marrow has aided me in the Good Fight against my arch enemy; Writer's Block (shaaaaah!). I'm a little disappointed I'm not getting more reviews –I swear the are like kindling to my writing flare- but what can I do about that? Also I 'aves me a job-senstein now- very much cutting into my writing time. And, WOW, it's been a month since my last update. X( Ok- here cometh the chappie, curve ball staiyal!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.**** And I should probably make these disclaimers more interesting! Look forward to it!**

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A lone dumpling, left all by itself on a skewer, weaved through the air awkwardly and without stopping. It may have missed its friends, now long gone, having been eaten while they were still warm and fresh. Now there was only one, and the one was alone.

A less poetic dumpling might have said it was "having a big 'Waaaah,'" but how can you be less poetic than a cold piece of food, anyway?

The dumpling was at one end of the skewer impaling it, while the other end was in Tsunade's mouth. She was busily flipping through what was commonly referred to as a "tome," and that as the best word for it, too. It was a large, leather-bound book with hundreds of oversized pages covered with neat, small script. It had medical notes and genealogical records of hundreds of families, and had somehow survived the Third Shinobi Wars. Tsunade had added her own notes in the later pages, but she was hunting for a specific record.

After Jiraiya and his new student convinced her to return and become the Fifth Hokage, everything was in disarray. With Orochimaru's attack on the village, it was paperwork after treatment after surgery after paperwork, with a little time in-between for a nap if she was lucky. She had dealt with the more serious injuries already, but another patient had piqued her interest. Not local, certainly not well-known to the medic-nin of the village, but this book could give her a clue.

The dumpling ceased its unsteady dance when she realised she had just flipped past the page she was after. It vibrated slightly with anticipation as she flipped back carefully, and was removed from her mouth entirely when she found the reference.

'The Kaguya clan, huh?' she said aloud, reading from a passage which made constant reference to a large, complicated family tree on the opposite page. As she read, she slid the last dumpling off the skewer and ate it, making a face at the unpleasant texture of the long-cold food.

Shizune -who was industriously sorting through a pile of ledgers, logistical information, and village mission requests- turned after considering the name for a few seconds. 'The foreign boy in the hospital?'

Tsunade didn't answer immediately, still reading from the book. Shizune watched patiently, and tried to continue sorting at the same time- erroneously putting a mission request and an immigration request letter in different piles in the process.

All conventional information about the Kaguya clan was in general agreement that they had been wiped out some years previously after attacking Kirigakure for apparently no reason. Kimimaro seemed to be a contradiction to popular opinion.

More importantly, Tsunade had found a few records about their medical history.

* * *

'Eh? Hinata?'

Hinata turned at the mention of her name, and discovered Haruno Sakura looking slightly perplexed and carrying some flowers.

'Ah, h-hello, Sakura-san.'

'Why are you here? I thought Kiba-kun was discharged a long time ago.'

'Ah, yes. I'm here visit-ting someone else. Who, who are you here to see?'

Sakura looked down, as though she was thinking about something slightly painful. '…Sasuke-kun and Lee-kun.'

'I…see…'

Catching Hinata's expression, Sakura shook off the anguish and smiled. 'No, it's fine. How about we both go? It might be more fun that way.'

At this point, Hinata wasn't too sure of what to do, so Sakura decided for her.

She took her hand and dragged her onwards down the hall. 'Come on, let's go.'

'Eh?'

Sasuke's room tuned out to be just around the corner, but the atmosphere almost visibly changed when Sakura opened the door. Sasuke was lying in bed, staring up at the ceiling darkly. He didn't pay any attention to them as they came in, and failed to take any interest in Sakura's questions.

After an awkward two minutes, Sakura decided it was time to leave, and Hinata breathed a sigh of relief at being away from such a heavy atmosphere.

'…Sorry about that…'

'N-no, I, um…'

Fortuitously, Lee's room was nearby as well. Before sliding the door open, Sakura took a deep breath, and smiled as though she hadn't just been totally ignored by one of her best friends.

'Hi, Lee-oh…'

Lee was sound asleep.

'Oh well, I guess this is fine too…' Saying so, Sakura made her way to the bedside table and replaced the flower in the vase there. No attempt was made to wake him, and since he looked so peaceful, they both left quietly.

'Well, that's everyone I came to see. Who was it you were visiting?' Sakura asked, motioning for Hinata to lead the way.

'Kimimaro-kun…' Hinata tried to get her bearings. The inside of the hospital all looked the same to her, and she wasn't used to being in this hallway.

'Kimimaro? I don't think I've met him. He wasn't at our year at the Academy, was he?'

Hinata shook her head, now having a pretty good idea of where she was.

'Kimimaro…ah' a look crept over Sakura's face. The best description of it, using only one word, would have been "sly." 'Hinata-chan.'

'Eh?'

'Don't tell me, he's your boyfriend?'

Hinata's mouth dropped open, and she stared at Sakura for the better part of ten second before the blood finally remembered what it was supposed to be doing, and rushed to her head. Almost instantly, her face turned from her regular pale complexion to bright red- so fast you wouldn't be surprised if you saw a cloud of steam erupt along with it. Sakura took this as an affirmative response.

'Really? He is?'

Hinata started fidgeting with her fingers and shook her head several times.

'Hm? He's not? …Aha, sorry. Forget I asked.'

Sakura hovered behind Hinata as she opened the door, not quite sure what she should have been expecting Hinata's friend to look like.

'H-hello, Kimimaro-kun,' said Hinata, stepping through the doorway timidly. 'Are you feeling any better today?'

Kimimaro nodded after a slight pause. He made it very obvious that he was looking at Sakura, and then looked at Hinata.

'Ah, this is…a, um, a friend of mine.'

Sakura became aware that something was expected of her. 'Oh- I'm Haruno Sakura. Nice to meet you,' she said, giving a warm smile. Kimimaro's expression didn't change.

'…Kimimaro Kaguya. Please excuse me for not standing.' Not having spoken to him before, Sakura didn't pick up on the subtle hint of cynicism at this comment. But with the sound of his voice, and his manner, she finished drawing a mental image of him.

He had a strong but gentle voice, jade green eyes with a thousand yard stare, white hair which looked smooth and soft, if a little ruffled at the moment, and he was fairly handsome, she had to admit. Kimimaro Kaguya, huh? Hmm? The first name and family name were around the wrong way. That was how people in some other countries said their names, wasn't it?

'Oh-um-uh, no- no, that's fine. Don't worry about it.'

Rather than saying anything, he blinked as though this was some outlandish indication of understanding.

'…Um, so…where are you from, Kimimaro-kun?'

For a moment, Kimimaro seemed a little surprised at being addressed so informally by someone he had just met, but only for a moment.

'…Mizu no Kuni.'

'Oh? What's it like there?'

* * *

The three of them (mainly Sakura) chatted more extensively than any single one of them would have expected. Ultimately, what brought their talking to a somewhat abrupt halt was the entry of the Hokage, Tsunade. After being quickly shunted out of the room by the nurses flanking her, Hinata and Sakura were left outside, blinking confused and awkwardly at the closed door in front of them. Sakura was the first to recover, and took advantage of the situation to voice something that she had been wanting to say for a while.

'Hinata.'

'Eh, yes?'

'You said he's not your boyfriend, right?' Sakura stared at the door thoughtfully as she asked.

Hinata turned a few shades of red, started fidgeting with her fingers and looked floor-wards. 'Mm.' she confirmed what she had said earlier, but she wasn't sure she liked where this was going.

Sakura turned to look at her and- 'Why not?'

'…Eh? Wh-w-w, uu, what do you mean?' Now that; she hadn't been expecting.

'Well, I mean, he's…' Sakura leaned closer and whispered in her ear '_…he's totally hot._ Don't tell me you haven't noticed.'

'A, ahn…umm, eh…' making strange noises and fidgeting more vigorously with her fingers, Hinata looked around the corridor as though trying to find an answer written on the walls.

Sakura watched her for a while before breaking out in a fit of giggles. 'Hinata-chan, you're so easy to understand!'

'Sakura-san…'

Once more, they were interrupted by the sudden appearance, unstoppable passage, and disappearance of the Hokage, still flanked by two nurses. She had a determined and ponderous look on her face, and didn't seem to notice anything else in the hallway- like patients. Those too slow to get out of her way were hastily pulled aside by the nurses, who then fell back into pace with her. Sakura and Hinata were left blinking in confusion

'…Does that happen often?'

'…No…'

Sakura quickly made sure the door to Kimimaro's room was closed, and then whispered in Hinata's ear again. '_So, why not?_'

'Th-that is…'

'…' Sakura fixed Hinata with a long, evaluative look. '…You like someone already?'

Hinata's face flinched slightly, as though Sakura had actually reached into her head and confiscated the information.

'Hmm, so that's it…' a bitter look crossed Sakura's face. '…And that person barely even knows you exist, don't they?'

Hinata looked up, and saw the most troubled expression she had ever seen anyone make. It almost looked like Sakura was going to cry, but she shook her head after a second, dispelling whatever thoughts were causing her grief.

'Well, we can't help who we like' she said brightly, and smiled. It was an oddly…empty smile, obviously forced. She poked her head into Kimimaro's room and bid him good day, before gently shoving Hinata inside and closing the door, giving one last wink to Hinata before leaving.

Apparently, Kimimaro hadn't really noticed their presence since Tsunade had left. He was staring at his sheets ominously.

Hinata nervously took a seat by the bed, her conversation with Sakura still fresh in her mind. 'Um, wh-what did Hokage-sama want to speak with you about?'

Kimimaro, still staring at the sheets blinked, as though failing to comprehend something, and looked up. Finding Hinata there, the question seemed to make sense.

'An…operation.'


	6. Bones

Author's Rambling Incoherence: FWAAAHAH! I finally got the time, motivation (lack of anything else to amuse myself with), and not-totally-broken-afide copy of Word 2007 to finish this chapter. Hooray for a weekend free of parties and money, and yippee for online troubleshooting forums!

There, that's my excuse for taking so long- now where's your excuse for not leaving reviews? …No excuse, you say? YOU SCOUNDREL!

But that's ok, I used other people's fanfiction as a substitute to spark my creative flair. And my writing rock.

Now ENJOY OR… Or…be…um…e-ENJOY!

**Disclaimer: I will personally shank anyone who says they own Naruto or any characters therein. Unless they happen to be named Kishimoto Masashi, but what are the odds of that, right?**

* * *

According to Tsunade's research, the Kaguya clan were a bloodthirsty, warmongering bunch of psychopaths. That was common knowledge, at least. More in-depth reading of her medical journals shed some light on the secret abilities of their bloodline.

Apparently, most of them had been able to manipulate their own bones to a certain extent, and nearly always had a naturally superior rate of regeneration to cope with what this ability would undoubtedly do to their muscles and skin, assuming it didn't mess around their organs as well. But Tsunade suspected that this passive ability might be the cause of the debilitating illness that the apparent sole survivor of the clan had been struck by.

From her examinations, she had concluded that the problem with his lungs was the formation of a mass of tissue that was growing exponentially, and without any real reason. This was commonly known as a cancerous growth. It could have started as an incorrectly copied cell in the lung, or it could have been his regenerative abilities going haywire. It was hard to say.

Unfortunately, she couldn't find many cases of a cancer in the lungs being removed successfully. So, she'd probably just have to wing it, and that was NOT something a medic should ever say.

Another possibility about the cause of the cancer lay on the skin above his sternum. One of Orochimaru's Cursed Seals. Kimimaro hadn't exactly gone out of his way to deny what it was, but she would have figured it out even if he had. She wasn't too sure about what it was supposed to do, but she'd sooner cut the damn thing out and replace the skin than risk having another tumour form because of it.

How he ended up having a Cursed Seal was a subject of intense interest, but she couldn't draw any conclusions yet.

He was turning out to be _full_ of surprises.

* * *

Now this was a slight deviation from the norm.

Hinata was generally quiet -a little more so recently, granted- But she had never actually fallen asleep while visiting him. Had he been a more frivolous man, he might have felt moved to play a trick on her innocently sleeping form. Like…drawing on her face, perhaps. Somewhere, deep down, he did have a small urge to do so, but he easily dismissed it as nonsense. Besides, what would he draw?

He watched her sleep, slumped in an uncomfortable-looking seated position, and tried to make sense of the odd coherent word she mumbled. As far as he could tell, she was dreaming about butterflies. Curious.

As a somewhat related subject, Hinata herself was…a "nice girl." He didn't much care for that particular wording, but it seemed like the most suitable way to sum her up. She had saved his life for no apparent reason, even though she was a shinobi. Their function was supposed to be the opposite, in theory.

On the other hand, she didn't seem to be particularly weak, either. The Hyuuga family was famous as one of Konohagakure's most powerful clans, so her being weak would be unusual. Certainly, she wasn't just some trash shinobi.

His interesting train of thought was briefly interrupted by Hinata mumbling again.

Butterflies _and _someone eating honey, perhaps. She seemed intent on stopping that person from eating said honey, due to the danger posed by the bees guarding the nest. At least that's how he interpreted "nno…nodont…buzz…" He briefly wondered who it was that was trying to eat honey, before Hinata jerked awake, possibly because she had just backhanded the corner of his bedside table.

'Aaaaah…!' she whined slightly, massaging the metacarpals of her hand sleepily. Kimimaro diplomatically ignored the onset of thought about the prestige of the Hyuuga name being somewhat diminished at that moment.

Before Hinata had a chance to grasp the situation she was now in, Kimimaro reached out a hand –with some difficulty- and patted her hand in a…he wasn't sure what manner of action he was performing, but he did know what his ulterior motive was. He wanted to recreate that…sensation. That tingling, warm feeling.

To her credit, Hinata reacted quite well to being touched suddenly after just waking up.

'U-hu-ahuaah!'

She didn't _quite_ fall off the chair.

Kimimaro blinked at her in a meaningful way, disappointed at not experiencing the feeling again. Maybe it was because she had wriggled her hand away in a frenzy of un-coordinated jerks, or maybe it just didn't work when he did it.

Catching his expression, and failing to understand it only because she lacked the ability to read minds, she turned a shade of red or two and began apologising.

'Ah, Kh-Kimimaro-kun, I didn't mean to- I was as- I just- a-eh-um, I'm sorry!' she squeaked in an uncertain flow of half-considered sentences. None of them were bad choices, per se, but a half-sleeping mind can imagine that all sorts of options are wrong ones.

Using the hand he had tried to placate her with, he tried to indicate to her that there was, in fact, nothing to be sorry about. She seemed to understand. This was fortunate, since he didn't have much energy.

Just then, the door slid open quickly, rebounding off the doorstop and settling in a half-closed position. The opening was still wide enough for Sakura, bearing a single daffodil, to slip inside, greeting the occupants of the room cheerfully as she did.

And then she stopped. She looked at Kimimaro, looking lethargic and ill, and she looked at Hinata, still slightly dazed from waking up suddenly.

Using the amazing powers of selective observation, Sakura ignored Kimimaro's sickly and Hinata's frazzled appearance, replacing them with her mental image of the two in a more pristine state, and framed the results as seen through rose-tinted glasses.

'…Ohh…You two look good together.'

* * *

To someone uneducated in the ways of the Medical Ninja, the sight of a room full of creamy-white-clad, intelligent-looking people staring at a large scroll nailed over the entirety of a wall and whispering various sections of it aloud might have looked a bit strange. To those familiar with it, it would seem like something very tricky indeed was about to be done.

These medics were experienced, and as such, their concentration could have burned a hole in a rock. If you could burn a hole in a rock just by staring at it, that is. They settled for burning the words on the scroll into their retinas.

Someone educated in the ways of the Medical Ninja, and in a position to have been observing the roof from above, would have noticed that they were very subtly divided into groups of about four or five. They might have also noticed that each of these groups was focussing on a particular area of the scroll.

Tsunade had spent quite some time deciding on the teams, and which rolls or shifts they would be taking to ensure things went smoothly. Lungs were delicate things- and she wasn't completely sure what would happen when they tried to remove the Cursed Seal. It couldn't hurt to be careful.

She had already given them the pre-procedural run through of what they would be doing, so all there was to do now was let them memorise as much as possible.

* * *

'Making first incision…' the scalpel, reinforced with the medic-nin's chakra, carved through Kimimaro's Sternum steadily. The Manubrium was separated from the Gladiolus and the Xiphoid process and from the flexible costal cartilage on its right side, as not to disturb the Cursed Seal while they worked on his lungs.

While the Chakra Scalpel technique allowed surgery without external trauma, sometimes you just had to open them up so you could see what you were doing.

'Pulse steady.'

'Isolating left lung.'

'…Breathing steady.'

'Team Two; begin regeneration.' When the quiet muttering from all corners of the room had synchronised, the scalpel moved again and, quite cleanly, removed a large chunk of Kimimaro's left lung.

The patient's fingers twitched almost imperceptibly when this happened, which was nevertheless noticed by a medic standing to one side for the sole purpose of noticing such things.

'Easy, now…'

With just as much accuracy and finesse as before, but with a little more delicacy, the scalpel sliced off another piece of lung tissue. The empty space left by the departure of the first piece of lung was slowly being filled by an orange, jelly-like membrane. It jiggled slightly as it expanded to fill the gap.

The process of systematically removing lung tissue continued for over an hour before the entirety of the lung up to the windpipe was entirely composed of the orange jelly. With support from Team One, Team Two carefully realised the image of the new lung. After a little scrutiny from Tsunade, it was accepted as a job-well-done, and Teams One and Two were excused, and quickly replaced by Teams Three and Four, who set about work on the right lung.

It would take time for the lung to become fully useable, but it was already at least as good as his old lung had been, so he was able to breathe with it while the right lung was shut off. It was an improvement, no matter how you looked at it.

Apart from a fairly tense couple of seconds where a member of Team Three fought a sneezing fit before emerging victorious, the procedure on the right lung went as smoothly as the left.

Before they could stitch him up, however, Tsunade intervened. She hadn't gone into much detail about this phase of the operation, so they were taken slightly off guard when Tsunade warned them to keep an eye on the patient's joints, took a scalpel in hand, and removed the epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis in which the Cursed Seal was contained.

Kimimaro screamed.

* * *

The following day, Kimimaro woke…gradually. Far removed from the sudden waking (as from a nightmare) and equally far removed from the groggy, incoherent, confused and erratic waking, (as from a long night at the pub or heavily-medicated hospital stay) he woke up easily and without discomfort.

Until he tried to move, anyway.

A tingling, burning pain ran along the contours of his collarbones, lower ribs and sternum, and completely covered a certain patch of skin above the sternum. His lungs also felt as though they were stuffed with cotton wool… It's quite amazing how the human mind can imagine sensations.

Of minor interest to him was that Hinata was absent. He had been expecting her to be asleep in a chair beside the bed, but he supposed that had been a one-off occurrence and also that he had been getting too accustomed to her company. Now there was something he had never expected to suppose before.

Such things happened, he guessed.

As no interesting event or mildly distracting conversation seemed to be forthcoming, Kimimaro briefly pondered the wisdom of sitting up. Given the nature of what had been done to him only a few hours before, sitting up suddenly probably wasn't the best idea. Deciding that he was not in possession of all the facts, he tried to sit up anyway.

And was interrupted by the untimely arrival of the pink-haired Sakura. Masking his displeasure at being denied his child-like act of self-brutality, and welcoming an alternate activity, he waved unenthusiastically as she came into view.

''Morning, Kimimaro-kun!' she said, with the same fake enthusiasm she normally had when she entered his room. It may or may not have had something to do with the other people she visited before stopping to chat with him, but he couldn't be sure.

Pointedly ignoring the vague gesture Kimimaro was making with his hand instead of saying "hello," Sakura crossed the room in a few easy strides and filled the vacant chair by the bed. For some reason, the nurses -secretly in conjunction with Sakura- seemed intent on keeping only one chair in his room, so Sakura rarely stayed in the room for long when Hinata arrived, preferring to stand on the occasions she did stay.

'So?' she started, leaning forward with conspiratorial interest, clearly not acting her enthusiasm anymore. 'How are you feeling?'

'Fghiere-' Kimimaro blinked, seeing the same confusion on Sakura's face as he was feeling himself. He cleared his throat and tried again. 'Fine.' Not to be fooled by this deceptive verbal dodge, Sakura immediately probed further.

'What does "fine" mean, exactly? That could mean anything coming from you. Do you feel better or worse than before?' Kimimaro considered this for a moment.

'…Different.'

'Hey, now. I've thought so for a while, but you really don't talk much, do you?'

'No.'

'Right, stupid question' she said, sighing.

'…' The room fell, once more, into silence. Having come to a conversational dead-end, Sakura was frowning in a manner that suggested she would have liked to go back and ask something different. Kimimaro wasn't exactly helping the situation, either. He was staring at the ceiling while quietly experimenting with his breathing. After a few tries he figured out the point at which the burning, tingling pain mutated into intense, stabbing pain. Tsunade hadn't gone into great detail about what they were going to do to his lungs, but whatever they had done, it was extensive. The intense, stabbing pain must have momentarily shown up on his face, and inspired Sakura to ask a slightly more precise question.

'Is your breathing alright?'

Kimimaro thought about this for a moment. His breathing was certainly better than before, so he answered "Yes."

'That's good,' Sakura said, smiling with the radiance of someone with the ability to pretend that the last few spoken exchanges had never occurred, and that Kimimaro had, in fact, answered her initial question.

Kimimaro and Sakura both paused in unison when they heard the sound of someone trying not to make any noise in the hallway. And, as expected, the hallway discharged a slightly fatigued Hinata into the room. She looked as though she had run all the way to the hospital and then tried to catch her breath on the way to his room. After seeing that he was awake and, presumably, in good shape, she looked somewhat relieved.

Sakura looked from one to the other a few times before deciding something to herself. 'I'll go get another chair,' she said, indicating that Hinata should use the one that she had been occupying until that point and heading past Hinata to the door. Hinata sat down quickly and proceeded to ask Kimimaro something that he had already been asked that morning.

'How are you feeling?'

Sakura must have heard, because Kimimaro had the feeling that she was glaring at him through the door. He ignored the feeling, and answered the same way as last time.

'Fine.' Unlike Sakura, Hinata found this not only an acceptable answer, but a reassuring one also. She nevertheless found it a little difficult to express this.

'Um, I…I'm…glad,' she said in a voice as tall as a mouse before Sakura's reappearance caused an easy subject change.

'I wonder why there's only ever one chair in here,' she lied. She had asked the nurses only keep one chair in the room to give Kimimaro and Hinata some time alone, but there was no need to trouble either of them with information of her involvement. 'But I guess it's ok. It gives you two a little more Alone Time.'

'S-s-Sakura-san…!' Hinata's reaction was unworthy of attention. Sakura had seen enough blushing and stuttering to know that she liked Kimimaro, at least a bit.

Kimimaro, on the other hand, was a book written in another language, with half the pages ripped out. And if the price of deciphering some of those pages was to embarrass Hinata a little, then it was easily worth paying.

Alas, those precious pages were blocked from her sight by that damn hard cover of a face. The blank face that only told her he didn't understand the significance of what she had said.

She slumped her head in disappointment and lay a hand on Hinata's shoulder in sympathy. Hinata looked confused, but worried that Sakura might say something even more revealing. Kimimaro raised an eyebrow in question. He lowered it again when no answer seemed forthcoming.


	7. Baby Steps

**Awwright, I- in my in-finite wisdom- have decided to make this a short chapter, purely because of the difficulty I've been having in writing it. I'd liken it to…trying to get a straight answer out of an indecisive politician. It happens, but not often, and it doesn't necessarily tell the truth.  
…I feel like I just said something really profound just then.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto (id est, if I was Kishimoto Masashi) I wouldn't be writing this. Particularly not at this time, in this freezing room, with light pockets and a cold.**

* * *

The process of recovery was…gradual, but it wasn't exactly surprising that his total expected recovery time exceeded two weeks. His lungs seemed to be working well- but, when in doubt, take extra care. And he was now only a few days away from being released into the larger world.

His physical condition hadn't degraded much during his stay, but the staff apparently thought it prudent to bore him with physiotherapy anyway. Still, he was much more interested in doing something other than lying in a bed. Since his options on this matter were somewhat limited, he basically sat in a chair all day instead, staring out the window and watching people go about their business- sometimes to the people's unease.

He also read from a selection of brand new books, bought as a kind of celebratory gift for not dying, he guessed. They were certainly…varied. There wasn't really much similarity between the books, apart from that they had, maybe, been purchased at the same store. There was a thick hardcover on the history of Konoha, a much slimmer book filled with pictures of exotic and local wildlife, an omnibus of famous people- slightly out-of-date, a copy of "Taijutsu For Dummies," and a very thin one printed on large, thin pages that he was given to understand was called a "magazine." It was probably of the type favoured by girls, since most of it was pink. The last thing, which had been hiding at the bottom of the bag they had come in and was probably best not described as a book, was a large, folded poster. It was a sort of local advertising pamphlet for the people in the village, mostly to do with special sale offers.

Overall, the books were tedious, the magazine was perplexing, and the pamphlet, while possibly useful to someone not confined to a hospital room, was pointless to him.

He read through them all anyway. It wasn't like he had anything else to do in-between visits from Hinata and Sakura.

Outside the window had been catching his attention more recently. He'd seen enough blank white walls and books for a good while, so he spent a great deal of time watching the village…happen. Ninja dashed from building to building, townsfolk did ordinary things, which mystified Kimimaro somewhat -having been nothing but a tool of war his entire life- and children played. They were the more interesting to watch. Even though they were just doing children-like things, like running around, and bleeding, and trying to use Jutsu they were just a bit too inexperienced to use properly -simple, childhood games.

Kimimaro envied them a bit. So carefree- doing whatever they got into their heads to do. So…free…

Kimimaro's train of thought, imagining himself playing amongst the children (despite the incredible awkwardness), came to a screeching halt as he felt two explosions of Chakra somewhere above him.

The two opposing forces had been growing in hostility steadily for a while, but Kimimaro hadn't taken notice of them until that moment, because it was suddenly so different. Two people were about to kill each other. Two shinobi were going to face one another, each focusing only on the enmity they felt towards the other, and use techniques- which knew no purpose but to kill- against their target.

In morbid fascination, Kimimaro watched the Ninjutsu escalate in force as though he could see through the ceiling and be there himself. He watched the two enemies launch themselves, and watched as a third presence suddenly appeared and disrupted the fight, causing both Jutsu to discharge against the building harmlessly.

After the plaster stopped raining down on him, he brushed the dust out of his hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, and off his face, never looking away from the ceiling.

What was this emotion? Apprehension, disappointment, panic, contempt, exhilaration, revelation, cold approval…What was it?

* * *

Apprehension ended up being a surprising fit, in retrospect, but that was only if he used it out-of-context. If he used it at all.

At that moment, all things considered, he was much more interested in being…quiet. And subtle. And…not there. Distaste aside, he had chosen to sleep in his bed, where he was now firmly awake and troubled. He was even masking his chakra in the hope that _they_ wouldn't notice him.

Truth be told, it wouldn't matter a great deal if _they_ did notice him, since _they_ were no match for him- but _they_ could make things…complicated.

After all, _they _were the Sound Four, Orochimaru's most powerful soldiers. And they knew him.

Fortunately, they also "knew" that he was dead, as did their master. Their presence in the village was suspicious, but probably not related to him since they were currently engaged in combat with a single shinobi. The same one that had been fighting on the roof earlier that day.

Tempting as it was to look out the window and see who it was, that was probably not the best idea. So, he remained hidden until the fight dissipated. Even then he didn't look out the window, at the defeated Konoha shinobi. Who seemed to have a Cursed Seal of his own.

* * *

When Hinata walked through the village the next morning, she had a feeling that something was amiss. It was normal to see shinobi dashing around the village, but there hadn't been so much clamour since the Oto no Gakure invasion.

Whatever had happened, they were trying to keep it quiet.

Once inside the hospital, she started hearing snippets of conversations. Something about Uchiha Sasuke.

She reached Kimimaro's door, pausing for a few seconds before knocking for reasons which still eluded her.

'G-good morning…' she noticed something out of place when he turned to look at her, '…Kimimaro-kun...'

It didn't take long to figure out what it was.

'Good morning,' said a somewhat unfamiliar Kimimaro. The face was right, the expression was right, the body was right; but the hair was different. During the time she had known him, he hadn't exactly neglected his hair, nor did he pay it any particular attention. But this was the first time she had seen it shorter than usual. It no longer reached his shoulders, instead, it terminated suddenly just past his chin- even, all the way around. The red clasps that had held tufts of long hair were absent, and his familiar zig-zag part had been replaced by a straight one. The room lay bare of any instruments he could have used to cut his hair, innocent of a means to the change.

Frivolity being absent from his select repertoire of personality traits, he didn't ask her what was wrong, since he could make an educated guess. Instead, he wanted to confirm his suspicions about the fuss around the village.

The information Hinata was able to supply him with was…disappointing, based on his reaction. But it was enough of a clue for him to have a hunch about what was going on behind the scenes. Although, given his situation, that didn't really change things other than his perceptions- nor was he any more inclined to involve himself if he could avoid it.

Changing the subject timidly, Hinata offered Kimimaro an apple. The apparently random things she brought him from time to time mystified him, but no more so than it mystified Hinata herself. She didn't know what people wanted as a present, even less so if they were male.

She was relieved when he took the apple with only minimal perplexed blinking.

Sakura did not appear at all that day.

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**Oh yeah. DUUUUUDEEEE! What's with the cold-shoulder treatment with the reviews, yo?  
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	8. Discharge

**Author's Notes: Special thanks goes to dani's random fox for inspiring this chapter. Thanks again- and I definitely want to see your fanart! :3**

**Disclaimer: I am not Japanese. Which means I don't have a Japanese name like Kishimoto Masashi. Which means I don't own Naruto. Killjoy.**

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The Hyuuga estate was quiet. Large houses sprawled across the grounds surrounded by walls, shutting out the rest of the village. A few branch family members stalked around, keeping the minimal amount of security needed to fend off such threats as could be reasonably posed by stray cats, insects, and troublemakers. Night time was when serious attention was paid to keeping out…unwanted guests.

The greater majority of both the Main and Branch family's attentions were directed to minding their own business. And definitely _not_ trying to eavesdrop.

It was a rare day that a stranger visited the Hyuuga estate and rarer still when the visitor was an unknown shinobi from another country.

Hyuuga Hiashi was troubled. Had his daughter asked that Kimimaro be allowed to stay in their home for a while, he would have flatly refused. Such things were not done. The Hokage, on the other hand, was a little harder to say "no" to.

His eyes were firmly fixed on the boy called Kimimaro, and had been for the last ten minutes. Kimimaro himself had his eyes fixed firmly on the floor in front of him. A nice, well-maintained hardwood floor, polished to a brilliant shine. Apart from his apparent keen interest in the floor- his face held no discernable expression in an attempt to avoid conflict, his sitting position would have been a shining beacon of correct posture in the presence non-nobles, and his body language was indicative of his willingness to obey any rules Hiashi set for him. The fact he was _trying_ to express all these things was evident before Hiashi's eyes but that, in itself, was nothing to fault him for. What he could fault him for was that, in those twenty minutes he was sitting there, admiring the floor, he had barely moved a muscle.

The ability to remain motionless _was _something a shinobi would find useful, most never managed to attain that level of self-control so young. That still wasn't really a bad thing, it just made him slightly uncomfortable. That, and his lack of personality. He represented many aspects shinobi aspire to, albeit at the expense of his humanity.

To his mild annoyance, his daughter was less able to contain herself in such a tense atmosphere. She had been fidgeting non-stop to his right for quite some time now, glancing from Kimimaro to her father every so often. His other daughter was waiting outside; trying to pry the door open a crack to see what was going on.

The Hokage had asked him a favour, and it was his duty to support her, as she theoretically represented the will of the village. Also, in a household with absolutely no blind spots, nothing _untoward_ was likely to happen. He could probably trust the boy, since he was Hinata's friend.

Hiashi sighed and liberated Kimimaro from his unwavering glare. The boy didn't look up immediately.

'Hanabi.' There was an indistinct noise from one of the sliding doors in response to the name. After a few seconds of silent debate, a girl a few years younger than Hinata eased her way into the room. With a nod from Hiashi, she seated herself to his left.

'Hinata.' His first daughter promptly stopped fidgeting.

'Both of you; listen carefully. While Kimimaro is staying here, I want you to watch and learn from him,' he paused to let Hinata know that a show of elation was not seemly at this point. 'He has learned to become as still and silent as a rock, and both of you could stand to learn at least a little of that skill.'

'Yes, father.'

'Y-yes, father…'

Kimimaro had raised his head a little, but was still looking at the floor, apparently unwilling to meet Hiashi's eye in case this caused a change of heart.

'Kaguya-kun,' he paused again, until Kimimaro looked at him. 'You are free to come and go as you please, so long as you remember that this land belongs to the Hyuuga family, and respect it as such. Do you understand?'

'I understand, Hiashi-sama.' Hiashi nodded thoughtfully at this straightforward response.

'Hinata.'

'Yes?'

'Please show Kimimaro to his room.'

'Yes.'

* * *

Kimimaro was grateful to see a bed, much to his ironic amusement. After getting grilled by both the hokage and the head of the Hyuuga main family, he was grateful for something to lie upon. Hinata had also evaporated into the household, giving him some time to recuperate.

The hokage had asked him questions about his association with Orochimaru, and had been unable to hide her surprise when he answered her truthfully. Initially, her reaction to his story was decidedly negative, but her expression had softened towards the end. She must have believed more than he expected her to, since instead of having him executed (which was what he expected) she had summoned Hyuuga Hiashi and instructed him to find Kimimaro a place to stay. On Hyuuga land.

The Hyuuga family fought in a particularly lethal way, which Kimimaro wasn't confident his bone armour would be able to fully defend him against, so having them watch him wasn't such a bad idea, he had to admit.

He had been allowed the use of a one-room building, which may have been a shed at some point, out of the way of everything else. Given that, it wasn't very far from a few other buildings, most of which housed Hyuuga Branch Family members.

He lay still on his bed. It was good to have a bed that didn't reek of antiseptics for once in a very long time. The world smelt better without chemicals.

Lying still, with nothing to do, his mind gradually meandered towards subjects of interest to ponder. Like the information that the Sound Four had been eliminated. Far be it from him to feel sorry for those incompetents, but Konohagakure was really starting to surprise him. True, they had many clans which honed particular skills over generations to perfect them, and had several strong bloodlines which carried unique abilities, like his own- but he had never really thought much of any of it.

In his time as one of Orochimaru's most coveted possessions, he had found it inconceivable that some clutter of shinobi families could devise a way of stopping his armies, and nearly killing him.

The wolf that keeps his fangs hidden bites the hardest, perhaps.

* * *

'Byakugan!'

In a rush of chakra and increased sensory information, the wall blocking Neji's line of sight into the shed in which the visitor to the Hyuuga estate was staying faded away. He was then able to perceive a lone figure sitting motionless in the room.

Losing to Hinata in the preliminaries had been a major blow to his self-confidence. He had almost managed to trick himself into believing that he could exceed or escape his destiny. But it was not to be. A Branch family member cannot defy a Main family member. That was clear to him now.

Still, this stranger concerned him. His destiny was uncertain. His purpose was uncertain.

Neji deactivated his Byakugan and turned to leave. He made one more backwards glance at the shed before disappearing into the grounds of the Hyuuga Estate.

* * *

**Author's Notes Again: …Yeah, I dunno either…What? I don't control this story- I just write it.**

**No Explanation Warranted.**


	9. Meet The Family

Author's Notes: Ha-snaaaap! I didn't expect to be resuscitating this fanfiction, but Shintenshin hasn't been going so well lately... Have a chapter!

**Disclaimer: I do not, nor do I have dreams of ever owning Naruto. All is Kishimoto Masashi. Viva Capitolism!**

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Living in the Hyuuga Estate, while being quite a nice place in its own right, was made stifling by the unyielding and tireless eyes and ears of around ten Hyuuga Head and Branch Family members who had taken it upon themselves to give Kimimaro a few stern words if he _ever_ put a toe out of line. Every time he wandered outside of the confines of his room, there they were.

Here, an old man, his hair turning from the distinctive Hyuuga brown to a dusty grey, taking a morning walk around the inside of the wall that enclosed the grounds. His eyes would briefly pierce Kimimaro with momentary disapproval before he was on his way.

There, a young woman, who Kimimaro regularly saw preparing meals for most of the household, relaxing on the external deck of an adjacent building. She would favour him with a reserved, but friendly wave before returning her eyes to the clouds. But she would always keep him in her peripheral vision.

And always, always, Neji. Lurking around the corner of a building, leaning against a tree, or just glaring at him with thinly veiled hostility.

It was lucky that both Hiashi Hyuuga and the Hokage had allowed him to come and go, provided he was escorted. Hinata was a great help in this regard. Having know her for a few weeks now, he had decided that she was never comfortable. Anywhere. Her own home, least of all. But, her family being what they were, he could hardly blame her.

The only time she looked close to becoming calm was when she practiced taijutsu at a place she had been using for years. Even then, she seemed worried that someone might see her not living up to her family's reputation, but she could hardly be blamed for that either.

Watching her train was...interesting, but frustrating. Though the Hyuuga style was dissimilar from his own, her footwork didn't seem all that good. Jyuuken, from what he gathered, revolved around the principle of hitting a certain area on an opponent's body precisely and flooding it with chakra to damage the internal organs and cause swift death. A style that seemed totally at-odds with Hinata, but that was the fate she had received at birth, and she hit the logs with upper-body strength gained by practicing the same style since childhood.

It wasn't that she was bad- Kimimaro (a taijutsu master in his own right) simply observed her to be so. The more he watched her the more he desperately wanted to tell her what she was doing wrong. But he didn't know enough about the style to correct her so he stayed put and gritted his teeth.

It took several of such training sessions for Hinata to work up the courage to ask what was bothering him. Apparently, she had noticed his expression.

'No, it's nothing' he assured her dismissively. She looked putout for a moment, but rallied in a rarely seen show of obstinacy.

'Was...it something I did?'

'No, it's nothing' he repeated firmly.

'B-but...every time we come here...you...seem angry.'

'I'm not angry.'

'...You sound angry,' she countered reproachfully. Kimimaro was startled by her tone.

'...I'm sorry.'

'Uh-I, no- I...I didn't mean...'

'No, I am sorry. I...' he struggled to find a gentle way of putting it, failed and decided to twist the truth instead. '...Had something on my mind.'

'I...I see...' she turned back to the logs uncertainly. Didn't seem to want to practice anymore.

'I think...maybe it's time for a break.'

'Eh? Ah...ok...'

* * *

_Block-block...block, counter, advance, block, counter, advance-strike-strike, block, counter._

'Good.'

'...!'

_...Strike, strike-block-strike-strike-strike, retreat, strike, advance, counter, strike._

Hinata staggered backwards, breathing heavily. For some reason, the idea of sparring had come up. Kimimaro had done his best to match her skill level, but Hinata was finding it hard to guard against all of his attacks. Kimimaro had also, of course, been pulling his punches. He was afraid that Hinata would shatter if he hit her too hard. Anatomically speaking, that would never happen, but he just couldn't shake the feeling- nor could he think of a reason why he should.

The weakness of Jyuuken was almost certainly that it relied on careful, precise strikes that lost their effectiveness if they were even partially blocked. He mentioned as such, and Hinata breathlessly agreed.

Deadly as Jyuuken was when employed by the Hyuuga family, most shinobi used Goken taijutsu. From what he knew about the Hyuuga family's training, practice was usually done alone, and sparring only with other Hyuuga. Sparring against someone from outside the family would probably do Hinata some good.

A faint, irritating sensation distracted him from his thoughts. He glanced in the direction the feeling was coming from, and saw nothing. But he knew he was there. Neji was always close by.

'U-ummm...?'

'Hm?' Kimimaro was brought back to the matter at hand by Hinata- the subject herself.

'A-if...if you'd like, I...I brought some Chuuka Manjuu to eat!' she squeaked the last part quickly, trying to finish the sentence before her face became too red.

'Ah.' Kimimaro had lost track of time. It was well past noon. 'Now that you mention it...'

'P-please! By all means!'

'Alright..., then...' his hand paused, halfway to the open container he hadn't noticed Hinata carrying on the way there. He was forgetting his manners again. 'Itadakimasu.'

It was as good as it looked. The dough was fluffy, with a good hint of stickiness. The pork inside was diced with military precision, and the flavour wasn't at all overwhelmed by the other ingredients. Ginger, leek...bamboo shoot! All nicely brought together by soy sauce. It didn't seem to have much sugar in it, but that was something Kimimaro would happily embrace.

'Umm...is it no good?' Hinata was looking at him like she was about to cry, totally misunderstanding the expression that had swept over his face.

Kimimaro swallowed the mouthful of delicious pork that had sat forgotten in his mouth. 'It's good. No...'

'Eh?'

'...No, merely calling it "good" would be impolite. Truly, this must be the pinnacle of Chuuka Manjuu!' he held the half-eaten bun aloft as though trying to find a purchase in heaven for it.

He must have looked quite ridiculous.

Hinata stared at his serious expression for a few seconds. Then, she started giggling. Kimimaro had rarely seen Hinata even smile, so this was a rarer treat than the Perfect Chuuka Manjuu. He couldn't say he was entirely happy with being laughed at, though.

He felt blood going to his cheeks, also an unfamiliar sensation, and hurriedly sat back down.

'Ah- I'm sorry!'

'...You can laugh if you want.'

'No, I...umm...I've never seen Kimimaro-kun act in such a way before.'

'I just said what I felt... I've never heard you laugh, either.'

'I'm sorry!'

'Don't worry. I...I liked it.'

Hinata turned several shades redder and started fiddling with her fingers in a familiar way. Kimimaro finished his bun and changed the subject.

'Did you make these?'

'Eh? Ah-umm...Manahi-oneesama helped me...-'

'Thank you, Hinata.'

'Eh?'

He made a point of clapping his hands together in gratitude. 'Gochisousama-deshita.'

* * *

Hi no Kuni (Konoha in particular) was an interesting place. And these were interesting times to live in. Every clan in Konoha seemed to have produced someone who bore the title of "genius." Kimimaro's own clan, the now non-existent Kaguya clan, had labelled him a "monster" instead. In hindsight, Kimimaro could appreciate what a massive joke that was. They had hardly been more than murderous, half-cultured barbarians who could think of nothing but the joy of battle. The appearance of a "genius" in their clan had troubled them greatly. Here was a child they had no chance of killing if they felt like it, so they feared him. And rather than pointing him in the direction of the nearest victim and shouting "kill, kill, kill" or some such, they had stowed him away in a cage, and only let him out when the entire clan marched on Kirigakure. He had escaped capture, but the attack had caused massive anger all across Mizu no Kuni, generally directed at all those who possessed Kekkei Genkai.

Here, on the other hand, gifted shinobi were held in high regard. Even Neji Hyuuga, who carried the destiny of dying for the sake of the Main Hyuuga, was hailed as a prodigy, until his unexpected loss to Hinata Hyuuga in the recent Chuunin Exam. Still, Neji was very strong, hated Kimimaro for various reasons, and was not to be underestimated.

And, somehow, Neji had convinced Hiashi Hyuuga that they should have a sparring match. After all, since most shinobi used Goken Taijutsu rather than the Hyuuga clan's signature Jyuuken style, having Hinata and Hanabi observe the differences in technique would serve as a useful training aide. Kimimaro could almost _feel_ the smirk Neji was wearing, and wished he had kept his mouth shut at lunch.

Neji stood about five metres away from him, in the largest clear area in the Hyuuga estate, just near the main household. Recognising some ill feelings between the two of them, Hiashi had expressly stated that it was to be non-lethal combat. That meant Kimimaro didn't have to worry about Neji "accidentally" killing him...well, he didn't have to worry _so _much. On the other hand, it also meant that the use of bone swords was out. It probably wouldn't do his reputation much good to start pulling out his own bones and using them as weapons anyway.

Hiashi was sitting formally on the deck nearby, and Hinata and Hanabi were sitting on either side of him. Hinata looked very worried.

With a nod from Hiashi, Neji adopted his stance and charged. The first strike was an obvious decoy, and Kimimaro batted the hand away while searching for the follow-up attack. It was a good thing he did, since the surprise uppercut strike would have neatly lifted Kimimaro off his feet. As it was, he stepped out of the attack's path and aimed a punch at the inside of Neji's now vulnerable shoulder. His knuckles came in contact with nothing more substantial than the edge of Neji's jacket, and he had to quick-step past the return two-fingered stab that Kimimaro had heard was meant to hit pressure points on the body.

The initial series of blows having yielded no contact, they jumped away from each other and began circling in that odd, instinctive manner that comes naturally to people. Neji was definitely taking the offensive, so Kimimaro decided to try and get him off-balance. But it was going to be hard to deceive the Byakugan. He was going to have to rush him with almost no warning, or Neji would be able to turn the tables on him very quickly.

While circling, Kimimaro waited until Neji began taking a step before springing into action. Neji stood on the raised foot awkwardly and had to adjust his footing, forcing him into a defensive posture temporarily. Both of Kimimaro's feet left the ground for the spinning, bone-breaking kick aimed at Neji's left bicep. As expected, Neji blocked the kick, but had to use both hands to stop the blow. Taking advantage of his posture, Kimimaro continued his mid-air spin and then stamped down hard at where he thought Neji's chest should be. In this, he was proven correct. Neji stagged back a few steps, and Kimimaro had to try to land on his feet so that Neji wouldn't recover before he did.

Several more exchanges of blows ensued before the end of the match, each combatant receiving hits. Neji made eye contact with Hiashi twice during this time, as though asking permission of something. Hiashi refused to nod his head, and eventually called a halt to the festivities, believing that the point had been made.

Neji (ignoring a few places on his body that were probably hurting) smiled smugly as Kimimaro gripped his right arm with his left, both of which were now visibly speckled with angry red spots where Neji had closed tenketsu up and down his arms without Kimimaro realising what he was doing.

The smile turned into a look of pure rage when Hinata hurried over and asked if Kimimaro was all right.


	10. Pride

Author's notes: Special thanks to Darkamber8828 for making me **rage**write the first half of this chapter over a misunderstanding- and to MarauderGirl777 for smacking me upside the head with inspiration for the second half. If I had an extra set of hands, I'd give them both two thumbs up!

**Disclaimer: The way Naruto is going right now, I could never have come up with that stuff. And I didn't, because my input to the series is limited to my pitiful fanfictions.**

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Kimimaro had been taught a stiff lesson in humility, which he did not appreciate Neji for in the slightest.

While Kimimaro had scored all the clean hits (mainly to Neji's chest and back) he hadn't realised that by blocking all of Neji's apparently precise strikes, he was actually playing right into his hand. His arms throbbed with his heartbeat, the polka dot pattern on his forearms still bright red from where Neji had subtly attacked and closed his Tenketsu. It hurt to make a fist.

Jyuuken was a much more balanced and adaptable style than he had credited it as being, Neji demonstrating this misconception for what it really was. The Hyuuga clan was not a "Noble family" of Konoha without reason.

He was promptly shaken from his brooding stupor by the faint sound of faltering footsteps approaching his room. It had a curious start-stop aspect to its lack of rhythm, which strongly suggested that a very nervous Hinata was paying him a visit. For the second time that day, he guessed correctly.

Hinata was startled when he answered the door before she had composed herself enough to knock and jumped an easy foot backwards in shock. But she must have been spending too much time with him (if her recovery time was anything to go by).

'I...eh, I, um...' she trailed off before trying again. 'Ummm, how are you feeling?'

Kimimaro was hesitant to answer, but caught himself feeling...somehow at ease. He must have grown so used to listening to Hinata test her way through a conversation that it had become positively soothing. Homely, even.

Hinata caught sight of one of his arms. Her eyebrows drooped sadly. In recognition, perhaps?

'Does it hurt?' The directness of the question took him off guard for a moment, thought it was almost definitely a rhetorical one. It was likely that she has seen the same injury several times before- maybe even experienced it herself. What she was really asking was about his mental state. Whether or not he wanted to be left alone. For some reason, that really struck him.

He almost thought she was going to cry when he gave what he hoped was a humble nod of affirmation, but she surprised him again when she produced a small object from somewhere about her person. Just looking at it didn't tell him much, which was slightly problematic since Hinata had chosen this moment to revert back into a state of acute timidity.

It was small, wooden, cylindrical in shape, not much taller than it was wide, seemed to separate into two pieces, and Hinata was fiddling with it and glancing around nervously in a way that indicated she wanted to give it to him. Of course, he could have been wrong about that, but based on the situation-

'P-please use this!' she squeaked, suddenly holding it out to him clutched in both hands like she were offering it to an earth bound spirit.

'...By use, you mean...?'

'Ah- i-it's an ointment tha, that I made!' she seemed to blurt the last part out before being able to stop herself.

'You _made_ it?'

'Ah...yes...'

Now that _was _something. Thinking back- past what seemed like an age already- to when they had first met, what she had in her hands was probably the same topical ointment she had used on him, having found him (against all odds) in the middle of the forest. He had assumed she just carried some around with her, maybe in case of cuts or scrapes while training, he never would have guessed that she had _made_ it.

'That's...quite impressive, Hinata.'

'Eh? N-not at all!'

'Do you want to become an Iryou-nin?' He wished he hadn't asked almost immediately. Her face darkened, and she made that face that said she was thinking about her family troubles.

'I...I did. When my father decided that Hanabi should be the next head of the family...instead of me.' Kimimaro's stomach tightened in a disquieting manner. He needed to change the subject.

'Umm, say...'

'Huh?' He must have been making a strange face, since she shadow lifted from Hinata's expression in surprise. He cleared his throat and tried to calm down.

'I wanted to ask you about...' he cast around for something to ask her, and for a second he could swear he saw Neji some distance away, looking at him. He was gone when he looked again, but a thought occurred to him. He lowered his voice and leaned a little closer to Hinata so that she could hear. Her face changed colour in relation to his proximity, but that was normal.

'I wanted to ask you something about Jyuuken,' he whispered conspiratorially.

'A-yes! What would you like to know?'

Kimimaro held a finger to his lips to indicate that Hinata should be a little quieter, and ushered her into his room.

What he was most interested in was; would he be able to endure hits to his tenketsu if he used his kekkei genkai to grow bone "masks" under his skin.

Hinata had some trouble explaining how tenketsu worked- possibly because she couldn't see them like Neji could (another fact that earned him some reluctant respect). Plainly speaking, they are like pores in the skin through which chakra can be secreted. Hitting the tenketsu themselves isn't what causes problems in chakra flow, otherwise anyone could do it if they knew exactly where to aim. The real reason that Neji was able to effectively disable Kimimaro's arms was, again, because of Jyuuken.

A style unlike most taijutsu forms- bearing more similarities to elderly people's self-defence arts than to Kimimaro's own style- what made it truly devastating was the fact that every blow struck forces a large amount of foreign chakra into the body. In conjunction with the Hyuuga family's Byakugan doujutsu it is possible to disable limbs, disrupt chakra flow, or kill with a touch.

Neji was unusual in that not only could he see the chakra circulatory system, but also the tenketsu. Knowing where the tenketsu are, in relation to the chakra circulatory system, makes it possible for him to collapse an "artery" carrying chakra without the need for putting his own chakra into the strike.

That certainly explained his confidence.

Kimimaro glanced at his arm. His regeneration ability was limited when it came to his skin and muscles, and all but non-existent for his internal organs. But, since Neji's attacks on his tenketsu had done minimal damage to his skin, he could possibly overcome it. It all depended on how far under the skin lay the chakra circulatory system. If it was in the skin at all, the bone masks would be useless... He would just have to take a chance the next time. And he didn't doubt there _would_ be a next time.

His gaze drifted a little further up his arm, where Hinata was gently applying ointment to an inflamed spot. The ones she had already administered to had faded to a much lighter pink shade, and most of the associated pain was gone. It was quite effective for an ointment.

Hinata really was...a contradiction. Her fighting abilities seemed sloppy, yet she had beaten her elder cousin- widely regarded as her better. Her ancestral fighting style was incredibly lethal, but she seemed loathe hurting others (or even offending them) and made deceptively strong medicine. Maybe he was being a little obtuse about it, but that is how it seemed to him.

He realised that he had been staring at her delicate hands only when she screwed the cap back onto the tiny jar of ointment and set it aside.

'Umm, I've finished.'

'Uh-oh-thank you.'

'I'll leave it here in...case you need it later.'

'Uh, mm.' Something was wrong with his brain. He was making Hinata nervous with his strange behaviour, he could tell. She was slowly edging her way to the door, and he couldn't think of something to say that would make her stay. ...Why did he want her to stay...?

'A-um, well...uhh, g-good night, Kimimaro-kun!' she squeaked uncertainly, and fled from his sight.

Kimimaro gobbled noiselessly after her retreating back through the open door. There was that odd feeling in his gut again, an emotional response- but what kind!

After forcing himself to calm down, he settled into a sleepless night, a thousand noises of the night in his ears and a thousand questions in his head.

* * *

Kimimaro sat on the external walkway and stared at the wall directly opposite. The sun was still rising, and the sky over Konoha was stained orange. The occasional Branch-family member drifted in and out of view, failing to break his daze. He was tired. And a bit confused. He must have really been tired to not notice approaching footsteps, how they stopped behind him, or even the presence of another person on the deck beside him.

His discreet companion waited some time before breaking the silence. The Hyuuga clan seemed to like viewing the sky. '...Kaguya-kun,' came the stern voice of Hiashi Hyuuga.

'Hiashi-sama!' Kimimaro's eyes had spasm in their sockets trying to swivel in the direction of the unexpected voice in surprise and he stood quickly, making to bow. Hiashi stopped him with a gesture of his hand, and motioned for him to regain his seat. Kimimaro sat.

'Is everything alright? You don't look well today.'

Kimimaro tried to compose himself. 'I didn't sleep well last night.'

'Because of anything in particular?' There was a hint of curiosity and suspicion in his voice that gave Kimimaro cause for concern, but he decided to take the question on face value.

'For various reasons.'

'I see...' He made it sound like the conversation was over, but he didn't seem like he was about to leave just yet.

'Excuse me...can I...help you with anything, Hiashi-sama?' he asked with trepidation in his voice, despite his attempts to hide it.

'Yes. I would like to ask you something.'

'By all means.' Hiashi considered Kimimaro for a moment before speaking. Kimimaro couldn't work out the reason, even after he heard the question.

'What...' he seemed to struggle with the words. '...Do you think of Hinata?'

'...What do you mean?'

Hiashi crossed his arms. 'As someone from outside of the family, I'd like to hear your thoughts.'

'I...don't think I quite understand. Are you referring to her fighting ability?'

'That would be a good place to start. I would appreciate if you didn't hold back.'

Kimimaro thought about this. "Not holding back" would mean "be honest, even though this is her father you're talking to."

'Well... to be frank, I find it hard to believe that she could have beaten Neji,' he said carefully, hoping that he hadn't somehow overstepped the line.

Hiashi was silent for a few seconds, but returned that he felt the same way. Kimimaro breathed a sigh of relief quietly before tentatively going into details about her shortcomings in Taijutsu. Hiashi cut him off early on, already being well aware of this.

'Then, how about...as a person. What do you think of her?'

A lot of simple describing words zipped through his head immediately, followed by vivid memories of their last encounter. Gentle, kind, timid, unconfident, caring, determination, willpower, stubbornness, grace, warm-hearted, inner strength, strength that surpasses expectations, desire to help people, desire to be acknowledged, desire to be accepted. They were all good words, Kimimaro just couldn't think of how to convey them. He did his best. Hiashi listened to him speak patiently, occasionally smiling grimly or fondly, nodding, chuckling even.

'If you don't mind me asking...'

'Hm? What is it?'

'You must already know all this. You are her father.'

'That's true... But it's because I am her father that I don't notice her grow. And, as her father, that worries me... Sometimes it helps to look at things from another angle.'

'I see...' He wasn't sure he did, but he said it anyway. Hiashi didn't seem too convinced.

'You will when you have children.'

'...'

'Thank you for indulging my curiosity.'

'No, it was no problem.'

'Hm. Now then, I think it's almost time for breakfast. Shall we, Kimimaro-kun?'

'Certainly, Hiashi-sama.' Hiashi chuckled at Kimimaro's formality. Kimimaro didn't realise that Hiashi had used his given name instead of his family name for several hours. He really must have been tired.


	11. Prejudice

Author's Notes: Live! Liiiiive, damn you!

**Disclaimer: Naruto + Sleyman – (Kishimoto Masashi * Fanfiction)****4**** = Not mine.**

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The highly anticipated rematch between Hyuuga Neji and Kaguya Kimimaro came after only a few days of rest. Kimimaro's arms had healed completely, no doubt thanks to Hinata's ministrations, and he trusted that Neji was no worse off, having only been bruised in their last encounter.

The gap between fights had been...uneventful. The Hyuuga Clan, as a whole, had been having difficulty in getting used to Kimimaro's presence, not that it had been any different for him. Falling into their routine of rest, eating and training had been easy enough, a welcome change to his recent illness-induced inactivity. The difficult part had been the general atmosphere of uneasiness that seemed to follow him like a mist wherever he was in the household.

Where he went quiet conversation stopped, activities paused before resuming- and always, always, the pupil-less milky-white eyes of the family followed him. Sometimes containing objective curiosity, mild indifference, or carefully hidden enmity. The chasm between the noble family and the outsider was wide- and only bridgeable, it seemed at times, by Hinata or Hiashi-sama.

Today was different altogether. It seemed like the entire clan, branch family and all, had turned out to see the "contest," as it was referred to.

The men surrounded them at a safe distance, watching with various expressions while most of the women sat on the exterior walkway of the main living quarters, a few balancing unsteady youngsters on their laps. Whether they wanted to observe Neji's fighting prowess, see the hapless interloper get a thorough beating, or simply enjoy the spectacle for what it was, they all expected to see the genius of their clan win the bout a second time.

Kimimaro couldn't decide whether to oblige or defy their expectations. He had resigned himself to fight, trying to defeat Jyuuken itself as his main goal, and that was what he would attempt to do.

At a word from Hiashi, Neji settled into his stance, took a defensive posture and waited to see what Kimimaro would do. To begin, Kimimaro decided on one of his most well-used dances, Yanagi no Mai. It was quite possible to perform without the bone spikes protruding from his palms, turning it into a claw-handed, offensively-oriented attack pattern that relied heavily on Kimimaro being faster than Neji. This he was, but not by much, so he had to try and keep him too off-balance to counter-attack.

Kimimaro adopted the stance that went with the dance. Neji's eyes narrowed, recognising the subtle insult for what it was. Using and open-palmed style against Jyuuken, widely regarded as the most powerful of all open-palmed styles, would be laughable to most Hyuuga. That he was using it in what Neji privately considered a duel did not escape notice.

He must have taken it much more seriously than he had thought, since Neji surprised him by switching to offense and quickly closing the distance between them. Taking Neji's quick-temper into account, Kimimaro shifted his footing and prepared for the assault.

The first hit came low and fast, curving up towards his rubs. He swayed aside, managed to break Neji's rhythm by hitting the inside of the offending arm, and went for his shoulder with his free hand. Neji, taken off guard by the style he had not seen Kimimaro use before, managed to lower his body enough to evade the blow to his elbow and used the downward momentum to kick out a leg and sweep it at Kimimaro's vulnerable ankle.

The kick failed to connect. Kimimaro had sprung off his feet and was somersaulting over Neji. Trusting his instincts, Kimimaro hit the ground hard and span right, narrowly avoiding a powerful palm thrust intended for the small of his back- a lethal blow for Jyuuken. Kimimaro was endlessly impressed by Neji's ability to assess the situation and formulate an adequate response. But he was now standing almost next to Neji, and his hand was already touching his throat. Neji abandoned any thought of attacking, being forced to retreat with all his might or have his throat crushed. He jumped back as hard as he could, but couldn't stop Kimimaro helping him on his way a little. It was more a miracle than anything that he didn't end up on his back. Still, Kimimaro was all over him while he tried to regain his balance.

He exploited the opening for all it was worth, landing several clean hits to Neji's face, chest and arms before he was in a position to fight back effectively. When he showed signs of recovering, Kimimaro withdrew.

A murmur of conversation broke out like a rash. The Hyuuga onlookers were talking amongst themselves in hushed voices, now that there was a gap in the fighting. Neji rubbed the base of his throat where the side of Kimimaro's hand had dug in the most during his hasty retreat and scowled. No doubt, there were now a few other places causing him more discomfort, but he must not have felt comfortable with even the possibility of having breathing problems. He looked in Hiashi's direction, asking permission for something again. Hiashi crossed his arms and frowned, denying Neji's request.

Deciding that the same tactic was unlikely to work twice, Kimimaro changed stance; Tsubaki no Mai.

Though this too was a style that was meant to incorporate a weapon, it was easy enough to adapt. The important part was the rhythm and flow of movements.

Seeing him adopt another unfamiliar stance, Neji chose to be more conservative and remained on the defensive. Kimimaro waited, just in case, until it became apparent that he had learned his lesson. This time Kimimaro would have to attack.

He began, optimistically perhaps, with a series of three feints at Neji's right eye, right knee and left shoulder before executing the first real attack, aimed at his solar plexus. A little put out by the initial lack of contact, Neji still managed to guard himself with an elbow, turning the powerful hit into a graze by the narrowest of margins. On the other hand, he had managed to effectively drop his defences for the second time, and Kimimaro was quick to exploit the opening. He stepped closer, to where it was difficult for Neji to attack him effectively, and went for his exposed stomach. Neji tensed his muscles and tried for the only area of Kimimaro's body he could reach (his head), but he failed to connect and was slowly driven back, having to use his forearms to defend his chest and face. Once more, when Kimimaro sensed a chance for Neji to counter him, he increased the distance between them- this time by kicking Neji in the stomach, sending him sliding backwards and scraping up small trails of dust with his shoes.

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Neji forced himself to not drop to one knee and gritted his teeth against the pain. This was going far worse then he had expected. The two styles Kimimaro had used to great effect so far were not only quite different from one another, but were also nothing like how he had fought the last time.

'...Damn...' he muttered to himself, coming to the conclusion that Kimimaro had been intentionally hiding the full extent of his abilities in their first duel, while Neji had revealed almost all of his own secrets. That, more than anything, angered him. Focused him. Helped him ignore the pain.

He wanted so badly to use Kaiten to rebuff all of Kimimaro's close-range attacks- but he had not been permitted to, since it used far too much chakra to be called a purely taijutsu technique. Nor was he allowed to use "Hakke: Rukujuuyon Shou", even though it was the culmination of all of his training, because it would decide the duel instantly. But its use had not been totally forbidden...

He glanced at Hiashi again, so much anger in his eyes that it was almost a threat. Hiashi returned his stare impassively. But, just when Neji was about to give up on this request and return his attention to Kimimaro, Hiashi's features changed slightly, and he moved his head in an almost imperceptible nod. A wicked grin spread upon his lips as he wasted no time in assuming the position that signalled the beginning of the end for Kimimaro.

'Hakke!'

Kimimaro's eyes widened for a moment, as though he knew what was coming. But it was too late. He was inside Neji's range.

'Roku-jyuu-yon shou!' Barking out the name of his technique, he sprang at Kimimaro, with a speed that surprised even Neji himself.

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'Ni-shou!' Neji's fingers stabbed into Kimimaro's abdomen, in his left shoulder joint and right kidney. Kimimaro had already started growing the bone armour, but Neji had plunged in far faster than could be dealt with.

'Yon-shou!' Neji struck two more completely unprotected points on his body before coming in contact with the bone armour. His expression hardened, confused, but he continued his attack regardless. The tenketsu he had already closed would jeopardise the integrity of the armour, the only upside being that he wasn't likely to hit the same place twice- and even if he did, it wouldn't do much.

'Hachi-shou!' The speed of the strikes was steadily increasing, but more and more were hitting the armour rather than collapsing parts of his chakra circulatory system. The plan seemed to be working, for the most part. Not that Neji was going to let that stop him.

'Jyu-roku-shou!' His hands were difficult to follow now, but the blows were pattering against him like a light rain now, rather than arrows.

'San-jyu-ni-shou!' The hands attacking him were now moving so fast that they appeared to be swooping in from impossible angles. But that wasn't the end of it.

'Roku-jyu-yon-shou!' It was...kind of like getting hit by a slow-moving wall. The combined force of the last half of the attack hitting him almost instantly knocked him onto his back. He lay there, frozen, for a few seconds while he began re-absorbing the bone plates. He couldn't see Neji from where he was, but he could hear him puffing from the effort of using such an absurd technique. There was also laughter there. He sounded like he was working himself up for some grandstanding.

His joints were reluctant to move, but that would assist to reaffirm Neji's hope of victory. The more feeble his movements while he tried to stand, the more convinced he would become of his technique's effectiveness. Rolling onto his hands and knees like his body was of significantly higher weight than before (which it was), he grimaced in apparent pain just to be on the safe side.

'Well, Kaguya?' Neji said between breaths, his Byakugan no longer in an active state and mistaking Kimimaro's sluggishness for the symptoms of having one's chakra flow halted. 'Now do you see the difference between us?'

Reabsorbing the bone masks took almost as long as growing them did, but Kimimaro reasoned that the process would be complete by the time he regained his feet. And he was equally sure that Neji would allow him to stand without intervening- a statement of superiority that he currently had no reason to forego.

'Kimimaro-kun!' He was surprised to hear Hinata's voice, and felt a small pang of guilt that he had tricked her as he had Neji. Hiashi, either through perceptiveness or strictness, held out a diplomatic hand to silence his daughter. Kimimaro continued to straighten, the last of the errant bone metabolising completely. He would apologise to Hinata _after_ he dealt with Neji.

'Yes. I understand it quite well... now.' He slowly lowered himself into a very nostalgic stance. It was the stance of a style that had its roots in the Mizu no Kuni, and had been one of the first styles he had learned.

A twinkle of understanding passed across Neji's face, quickly replaced by a look of horror.

Any familiarity with the style he was using, and however much the few hits Neji had landed on him hurt were now irrelevant. Neji offered little resistance, having been shown that his ultimate move could be defeated. A poor imitation of Jyuuken could have bested him.

There was silence for a few minutes after Neji stopped moving. Then a few cantankerous old Hyuuga men began stalking away before the familiar murmur of hushed conversation reclaimed the area. What ultimately caught his attention, however, was Hinata's face. The relief expressed therein was obvious enough to make Kimimaro feel slightly embarrassed, and there was also the nagging twinge of worry for Neji's condition present there.

Hiashi sat unmoving- what he was thinking, Kimimaro couldn't begin to guess. He seemed thoughtful, but all other external indications were switched off; possibly because he was mindful of the entire clan's presence. He weathered an intermittent storm of hopeful glances from Hinata for a while before nodding reluctantly. Hinata rose to her feet and carefully made her way towards Kimimaro. The crowd was beginning to disperse now, and two men were gently hauling Neji away, whom Hinata sidestepped worriedly and crept the last few paces to stand before Kimimaro.

'Umm...g-uh, I...I'm glad you're alright,' she said uncertainly. Kimimaro found himself unable to resist the urge to twist the corners of his mouth into a faint smile.

At some point between the beginning and the end of his apologising for having worried her necessarily, Hiashi made himself scarce.

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Neji ignored the sting of antiseptic as it was applied liberally to his arm. Another Hyuuga branch family member was treating his injuries with unhurried care and attention to detail; not that his injuries were that severe.

Nothing recently made any kind of sense to him. Nothing made sense, ever since Hinata had beaten him during the Chuunin exam's quarter-finals. That should never have happened. He was stronger, faster and more skillful than her- and yet he had lost. His emotions had been in turmoil since then. And then that Kaguya had crawled out from under some rock in the forest...

That itself made no sense. How did such a strong taijutsu expert come to be wounded in the forest around Konoha? The timing of his appearance, not long after the attack by Otogakure and Sunagakure, was too close to be a coincidence- and the notion that he was just an innocent bystander that got involved was laughable. Ever since Neji first lay eyes on Kimimaro, he knew that he didn't trust him. They were destined to come to blows from that moment forth. But then it had all gone wrong again.

In their first engagement, Kimimaro had purposely shown him several different fighting styles to stop Neji gaining too significant an advantage while assessing the strengths and weaknesses of Jyuuken. And Neji had been taken in completely. Kimimaro had even managed to somehow withstand Hakke: Rokujyuyon-shou- a feat that Neji had considered impossible.

Neji, now the lone occupant of his room, brought his fist down on the side of his bed. '...Why?' The question asked to the still air around him, went unanswered. He brought his fist down again, harder this time, and ignored the tide of pain this brought. 'Why?' he demanded again, his voice quaking. The walls ignored his question, as did his (now slightly indignant) bed. 'I knew my destiny already, so WHY...?' the last half of the sentence died in his throat. _Why did I struggle so hard against it, knowing that it was pointless?_ Somehow, he felt that something indefinable would change within himself if he gave voice to the thought. He didn't know what this "something" was, but he felt apprehensive about it regardless. He felt as though he was holding onto a thread on the frayed hem of his "self" and if he pulled too hard the thread would begin winding away until he was in tatters.

He punched his bed frame again, hoping that the action would, in some way, put him at ease. It didn't really work. He bit his lip and tried to think about something else. Somehow, though, the question continued to surface in his mind. Why? _Why?_

'Neji.' His name was spoken in place of a knock at the door. And there was no mistaking Hiashi-sama's stern voice. Without waiting for Neji to reply Hiashi continued, 'I'm coming in.'

Neji tried to wipe away his tears of anger and compose himself before the door was open. He managed it, but only just. He felt like he say something pointed about how Hiashi-sama must feel disappointed by a failure like him but couldn't think of anything that didn't come across as insulting, such was his mood. He instead decided on a more pointed question.

'What is it you want?' he asked, as politely as he could manage. Hiashi looked at him with a serious expression. Maybe he really was going to tell him how much of a-

'I came...' Hiashi hesitated a moment. 'To tell you the truth of _that_ day.'

'...Truth?' Neji didn't understand. There was no question about which day "_that_ day" was, but Neji knew of those events quite well.

'That time...I fully intended to die.' Neji's jaw dropped at the implication, but that wasn't how he remembered it. He rounded on Hiashi, rather more angrily than was probably appropriate.

'What? What are you talking about? _That_ time, my father was killed to take your place!'

'Hindsight may give that impression...' Hiashi paused again, choosing his words carefully. 'But that is not the whole story.'

'What... after all these years...' It really was a bit late to be changing the story...

'I'm telling you after all these years because I thought you would believe me now.' A simple statement, and Neji saw no lie in his eyes. What came after, though, was particularly hard to swallow. A brief story of how his father had forced Hiashi to accept his decision to die in his place, for the good of the village. Neji was...less than convinced.

'...That is the whole truth,' Hiashi finished curtly.

'Why should I believe a story like that?' he demanded. 'It seems like a convenient excuse created by the main family! After all these years...' he said again, less accepting than the first time.

'I thought you would say that... that is why I waited. And told you now,' he added, unnecessarily. Neji made a universally understood sound of disbelief. But Hiashi surprised him by continuing, I wanted to- not as a member of the main family, but as Hizashi's brother... I wanted to tell you my younger brother's final words...!' His voice, Neji thought, carried conviction that he had never heard from Hiashi before.

As if that wasn't enough, before Neji's increasingly astounded eyes, Hiashi slowly dropped to his knees and bowed his head until it was almost touching the floor. 'Please believe me,' he said withoutmoving from his position. Neji tried to picture what expression Hiashi must have had then, but couldn't. Why was this happening?

'...Please...' Neji began, feeling tears well up. '...Raise your head, Hiashi-sama.'

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**Sleyman (Again): GAAAH! This chapter (and everything else I'm writing) was murder in a bottle under a bridge with my hand built into it. ...I don't even know what I mean by that! REVIEWS!**


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